It’s signature stat time! You know, that time of the week where we look at one of those Pro Football Focus stats we’ve created by using the unique data we spends hours and hours toiling away with to accumulate..
Well what would it be this week? Last week I spent an age talking about protection on the offensive line, and the week before Sam Monson had his Elusive Rating generate some discussion. So this time I’ve decided I want to look at the most important position on the field..
The Quarterback..
But what to look at? Well I ran a series of articles in the summer looking at different aspects of play, and the one that received the most attention was looking at how quarterbacks performed under pressure. Thus, today we’re going to be looking at how quarterbacks perform under pressure..
To add some context to everything, let’s look at which quarterbacks are getting pressured the most. A kind of logical follow up to our Pass Blocking Efficiency piece from last week. It won’t be a surprise to see someone like Michael Vick topping the charts. It’s not just that his offensive line hasn’t been great (Philadelphia currently rank 24th in our Team Offensive Line PBE rankings), but Vick is the kind of QB who just invites pressure because of his desire to sustain plays. Instead, the most telling name is that of Sam Bradford. Last year he was pressured on 34.1% of plays, and this season that has jumped up to 44.2%. Something isn’t working with the Rams new offense, and nothing highlights this as much as the table below..

Passing Under Pressure - Pressure Percentage

Rank

Player

Team

Dropbacks

Pressured On

Pressure %

1

Michael Vick

PHI

157

74

47.1

2

Donovan McNabb

MIN

128

58

45.3

3

Sam Bradford

SL

172

76

44.2

4

Chad Henne

MIA

135

59

43.7

5

Kevin Kolb

ARZ

146

59

40.4

6

Kerry Collins

IND

103

41

39.8

7

Rex Grossman

WAS

154

58

37.7

8

Alex D. Smith

SF

128

48

37.5

9

Luke McCown

JAX

48

18

37.5

10

Joe Flacco

BLT

152

57

37.5

11

Tarvaris Jackson

SEA

159

59

37.1

12

Ben Roethlisberger

PIT

159

59

37.1

13

Colt McCoy

CLV

183

65

35.5

14

Jay Cutler

CHI

149

52

34.9

15

Matt Schaub

HST

122

42

34.4

16

Eli Manning

NYG

137

46

33.6

17

Jason Campbell

OAK

129

43

33.3

18

Kyle Orton

DEN

153

50

32.7

19

Matt Ryan

ATL

182

59

32.4

20

Cam Newton

CAR

190

61

32.1

21

Josh Freeman

TB

163

51

31.3

22

Blaine Gabbert

JAX

77

24

31.2

23

Tony Romo

DAL

161

49

30.4

24

Drew Brees

NO

188

56

29.8

25

Matthew Stafford

DET

167

48

28.7

26

Philip Rivers

SD

169

48

28.4

27

Mark Sanchez

NYJ

164

46

28

28

Aaron Rodgers

GB

162

43

26.5

29

Matt Cassel

KC

123

32

26

30

Andy Dalton

CIN

136

34

25

31

Tom Brady

NE

169

41

24.3

32

Ryan Fitzpatrick

BUF

150

29

19.3

33

Matt Hasselbeck

TEN

138

22

15.9

.

What should be noted from looking at which guys are pressured the least, is that the bottom three have a combined record of 9-3. So teams that are keeping their quarterback pressure-free are winning. Of course, this isn’t always the case, with both Andy Dalton and Matt Cassel (as well as Mark Sanchez) fairing well in this regard. We’ll get to why that might be ever so shorty, but before we do, how about we look at which quarterbacks are letting the highest amount of pressure turn to sacks..
It won’t surprise many to learn that Jay Cutler is the quarterback leading this list. He narrowly beats out Alex Smith, and both Tarvaris Jackson and Ben Roethlisberger. All four men have been known to hold onto the ball a tad in order to either make a play (see Roethlisberger or Cutler) or avoid making a mistake (Smith or Jackson)..

Passing Under Pressure - Sack Percentage

Rank

Name

Team

Pressured On

Sack %

1

Jay Cutler

CHI

52

30.8

2

Alex D. Smith

SF

48

29.2

3

Tarvaris Jackson

SEA

59

27.1

4

Ben Roethlisberger

PIT

59

27.1

5

Andy Dalton

CIN

34

26.5

6

Eli Manning

NYG

46

26.1

7

Mark Sanchez

NYJ

46

26.1

8

Chad Henne

MIA

59

25.4

9

Sam Bradford

SL

76

25

10

Blaine Gabbert

JAX

24

25

11

Matt Cassel

KC

32

25

12

Matt Ryan

ATL

59

22

13

Kevin Kolb

ARZ

59

20.3

14

Philip Rivers

SD

48

18.8

15

Matt Hasselbeck

TEN

22

18.2

16

Kyle Orton

DEN

50

18

17

Luke McCown

JAX

18

16.7

18

Tony Romo

DAL

49

16.3

19

Aaron Rodgers

GB

43

16.3

20

Drew Brees

NO

56

16.1

21

Joe Flacco

BLT

57

15.8

22

Donovan McNabb

MIN

58

15.5

23

Cam Newton

CAR

61

14.8

24

Matt Schaub

HST

42

14.3

25

Rex Grossman

WAS

58

13.8

26

Kerry Collins

IND

41

12.2

27

Josh Freeman

TB

51

11.8

28

Matthew Stafford

DET

48

10.4

29

Ryan Fitzpatrick

BUF

29

10.3

30

Tom Brady

NE

41

9.8

31

Michael Vick

PHI

74

9.5

32

Colt McCoy

CLV

65

9.2

33

Jason Campbell

OAK

43

4.7

.

Down the at the bottom, credit goes to Jason Campbell, Colt McCoy and Michael Vick, with McCoy and Vick especially showing a tremendous ability to shake off oncoming defenders and get rid of the ball. Though as much credit as they need to take for that, we’ll examine what it does to their accuracy percentages..
Ah yes – the accuracy percentages. Those are what really matter right? To give a fairer reflection, we’ve counted drops as completions, and ignore throw aways. And who is top? Well, normality is restored as a Manning leads the way. Only this time it’s Eli with the top mark at 71%, narrowly beating out Josh Freeman..

Passing Under Pressure - Accuracy Percentage

Rank

Name

Team

Att.

Comp.

TA

TD

INT

Acc. %

1

Eli Manning

NYG

35

20

4

3

0

71.00

2

Josh Freeman

TB

38

25

1

1

1

70.30

3

Matt Cassel

KC

20

10

5

0

1

66.70

4

Drew Brees

NO

44

24

3

1

1

65.90

5

Alex D. Smith

SF

34

18

2

1

0

65.60

6

Matthew Stafford

DET

42

17

11

1

1

64.50

7

Chad Henne

MIA

43

24

2

2

2

63.40

8

Andy Dalton

CIN

23

9

4

1

0

63.20

9

Kevin Kolb

ARZ

44

20

9

4

2

62.90

10

Tom Brady

NE

36

18

4

2

0

62.50

11

Matt Schaub

HST

35

16

4

1

0

61.30

12

Tarvaris Jackson

SEA

39

18

3

2

2

61.10

13

Colt McCoy

CLV

57

29

6

2

2

60.80

14

Philip Rivers

SD

39

17

6

1

2

60.60

15

Ben Roethlisberger

PIT

40

21

2

0

2

60.50

16

Michael Vick

PHI

53

24

3

3

3

60.00

17

Matt Ryan

ATL

45

21

4

1

2

58.50

18

Donovan McNabb

MIN

44

23

3

2

0

58.50

19

Tony Romo

DAL

42

20

2

1

2

57.50

20

Cam Newton

CAR

42

18

2

0

3

57.50

21

Rex Grossman

WAS

49

20

7

4

2

57.10

22

Jay Cutler

CHI

36

17

4

2

1

56.30

23

Jason Campbell

OAK

39

17

5

0

1

55.90

24

Aaron Rodgers

GB

30

14

4

0

0

53.80

25

Kyle Orton

DEN

41

18

5

4

1

52.80

26

Ryan Fitzpatrick

BUF

25

12

2

1

0

52.20

27

Matt Hasselbeck

TEN

18

8

0

1

0

50.00

28

Luke McCown

JAX

14

6

2

0

1

50.00

29

Blaine Gabbert

JAX

16

7

0

0

0

43.80

30

Joe Flacco

BLT

47

15

8

0

2

43.60

31

Sam Bradford

SL

57

18

6

2

0

43.10

32

Kerry Collins

IND

36

12

3

1

0

39.40

33

Mark Sanchez

NYJ

32

9

3

1

1

37.90

.

When we look at the bottom of the rankings it will surprise nobody that Mark Sanchez is dead last given his struggles start the year. He remains the guy who is holding the Jets back more so than any other and really needs to step up..
Of course with all these stats you need to take a look at how they work in context, and in comparison to each other. Sure Matt Cassel has a high accuracy percentage when pressured, but he’s also taken a sack on a quarter of the plays with a man closing in. That’s why we always say to look at our gradings over any stats, and that’s why I’ll cheap plug our premium package to find out all the extra goodness that comes only with that..
That’s our Signature Stat for this week. Get in touch with the main twitter feed if you have some suggestions for future signature stats given the incredible amount of data we have at our hands.. ..Follow Khaled on Twitter: @PFF_Khaled … and be sure to follow our main Twitter feed: @ProFootbalFocus . ....

windwounder

I think it might be interesting to know what passes they are hitting on. A high percentage of dump offs that don’t get a first down look great, but are wins for the D. But if the QB is hitting a lower percentage of deep balls that extend drives, that is a win for the O and a better QB. In terms of the drive, down, and distance how effective are the QBs?

Mauha Deeb

I’m with Windwounder. It would be awesome to know what the product of those completions were and on what downs they were.

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